Two knee surgeries, years of back pain, countless trips to the doctor, and thousands of dollars spent on relief is testament to the fact that BJJ is bad for your body.
And after age 35, the negative effects of training seem to compound.
It takes longer to warm up, longer to recover, and the aches and pains that usually went after a day or two seem to linger for much longer.
Now we all know that when you step on the mat you’re accepting the risk that comes with live combat.
We all signed the waiver.
But Im not talking about the random twists and freak accidents that happen. Although painful, and sometimes life changing, those aren’t the things that ruin your body.
Im talking about negative effects that the innate positions of jiu-jitsu have on your body over months and years.
A popular YouTuber recently posted this video with the title “Jiu-Jitsu Saved My Life But Destroyed My Body,” after which a popular podcast responded here.
The podcast didn’t seem to agree with the YouTuber that jiu-jitsu was ruining his body, but more so either his lack of knowledge of how to properly care for his body, or lack of applying this knowledge.
I agree that the responsibility is on you, the grappler, to take your health into your own hands, however, I do believe there are many factors that make regular jiu-jitsu practice bad for your body.
Ultimately, I believe jiu-jitsu is destroying your body.
Here’s why.
Compression
I’ve spoke about the negative effects of compression here. Now compression itself isn’t inherently bad. In fact, it’s necessary for movement and strength.
The problem becomes when there is repetitive compression on the system that isn’t relieved over time.
When your body becomes compressed, your muscles and joints become restricted, ultimately leading to an underperforming system.
Many times in jiu jitsu you are compressing the body.
There is a common principle to remain tight and close the space when grappling. When an opponent can create wedges between your limbs, they can often open up attacks. So you stay compressed and tight.
You must also create compression to produce force and strength. Force and strength are needed to attack, defend, and counter.
So, again, compression is necessary and part of the game. However, if you are training a few days a week, constantly compressing the system, that has a lasting effect on your body.
Very few people dedicate time to a cooldown after class.
But that’s exactly what’s needed to relieve the compression created from training, and to maintain a high functioning body.
Without decompression, the body will adapt to its new state of compression, which could lead to pain, dysfunction and poor performance.
Promotes Bad Posture
There are a lot of opinions out there about posture, but whatever you believe, working to improve the alignment and integrity of your structure is a worthy goal.
Movement expert and life-long martial artist, Ryan Hurst, doesn’t believe in “good” or “bad” postures, but that there are simply different postures needed at different time to achieve different outcomes.
I tend to agree that different postures are needed within jiu-jitsu and grappling, however, one posture that is regularly experienced is a kyphotic or hunched over position with a rounded upper spine and hips tucked under. The spine is flexed forward and the pelvis is posteriorly oriented.
This is a necessary position to keep your limbs in close, and defend your vulnerable areas like neck, chest, and stomach.
This position is experienced in most guard positions, from top while passing , when standing to perform takedowns, and from side and back control.
So, again these postures are not a problem when you’re training, they’re necessary. The problem becomes when your body adapts to this and it becomes the posture you assume off the mat.
The muscles on the anterior chain become chronically tight, pulling your entire structure down and forward, including your head, shoulders, and hips.
The flexed forward position is the opposite of vitality. In fact, it’s a defensive, unconfident posture that promotes shallow breathing.
It’s the position of a scared animal and an old human.
In addition to relieving compression you must work your posterior chain and focus on undoing the negative postural effects of BJJ.
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Front Chain Dominant
As mentioned, the necessary positions of jiu-jitsu are often anterior chain focused, meaning the active muscles are the front core like the rectus abdominis and hip flexors, and also the front neck, chest and shoulders.
With so much stress and attention put on the anterior chain, these muscles become overactive and dominant. The muscles of the posterior chain often become under-active, with the the exception of the lats.
The glutes, spinal erectors, hamstrings, and rear neck often become over-lengthened and weak, while the front becomes short and compressed.
A concept that GOATA promotes is back chain dominance.
Through their research of the best performing athletes of all time, indigenous tribes, and high-performing senior athletes, they have concluded that all of these athletes remain back chain dominance.
In other words, the best performers, who also exude exceptional resilience and durability, have very strong and highly active posterior chains. In fact, the posterior chain muscles become the dominant supporting muscles in their movement, as opposed to the frontal chain.
BJJ in contrast promotes development of the frontal chain.
If you want to have a long, resilient career on the mats, or a long resilient life, investing time in becoming back chain dominant will serve you well.
Becoming back chain dominant will also aid in improving posture and relieving the compression that often occurs on the front of the body.
Lack of Foot Input
Most athletics are performed on the feet. All traditional field and court sports are played in an upright position on two feet.
Humans evolved to be on two feet and to move forward.
Our feet have more nerve-endings per square centimeter than any other part of the body and are vitally important for continuously giving us feedback of where we are in space. Ground reaction forces are generally experienced through the feet and allow us to transfer force through the body.
Jiu-jitsu, however, is rarely played on the feet. It is often played on the knees and back.
Therefore, that valuable input our body has been designed to receive and process is severely diminished when grappling. That input is vital for your body organizing itself to properly transmit and receive force.
Additionally, when the feet are grounded or in a closed-chain position, the joints can better create stability, which will help transfer force along the appropriate lines, while also protecting the joint from unwanted movement.
Jiu-jitsu is often open chain, meaning your feet are in the air with no fixed point to create torque or stability.
In my opinion, jiu-jitsu allows force to transfer through the body less than optimally, and certainly worse than it would through more predictable environments like on a court or field.
Again, the body was meant to be on two feet moving forward. We are designed to walk, run, and throw.
Jiu-jitsu goes against these innate patterns, and in fact, promotes the most vulnerable position of any animal, being on your back with your feet in the air.
You must work on foot health and maintaining your locomotive muscles to stay optimal.
EFFECTS ON THE Nervous System
This point of why BJJ is destroying your body builds on all of the previous points.
Very few people consider the effects that training has on the nervous system.
When you are intentionally repeating less than optimal positions with your body as you are in BJJ, you are telling your nervous system “I want to adapt to this position.” Essentially, “I want to get good at poor positions.”
It’s similar to the effects of sitting. When you sit regularly you are telling your brain and body to maintain that position.
Now, everyone experiences emotions while rolling. We all get nervous, especially before competitions, but frequently in the training room too.
When you train with these emotions and repeat these negative patterns your nervous system is in a fight or flight sympathetic state.
Now this is only a theory, but, I believe that with this combination of emotions and posture you are imprinting this state into your nervous system.
I can count on one hand the amount of jiu-jitsu classes I’ve been to where the instructor led a cooldown after class. The cooldown is where you are telling the nervous system that the fight is over.
It’s time to relax, get out of fight or flight, and begin the recovery process.
When this step is skipped, like it is in almost all schools, you never tell your body to come back to parasympathetic and thus, maintain a fight or flight state.
Doing this regularly, your body adapts to this new state.
Without activating the parasympathetic system your ability to handle stress suffers, your recovery suffers, your sleep suffers, and ultimately your performance and longevity do too.
Giving attention to the effect BJJ and fight sports have on your nervous system will help greatly in all aspects of your life.
Uninformed Instructors / Schools
Finally, the last reason why BJJ is destroying your body is not from engaging in the art directly, but from the lack of knowledge in most jiu-jitsu schools.
From all of the reasons previously listed, how many schools are taking these things into consideration?
As mentioned, it’s rare to find an instructor who performs a cooldown of any kind, and most warm ups are outdated and ineffective.
The running joke is that purple belts hide in the locker room and skip the warmups, however, this may be one of the worst things you can do as you age, and the dangers of regular training take hold of your body and nervous system.
The responsibility is on you the student to obtain the knowledge to counter the negative effects of jiu-jitsu, and then to maintain the discipline to apply this knowledge regularly.
FINAL THOUGHTS
We all love jiu-jitsu for all of its beautiful benefits. It’s a life-changing martial art that delivers so much for the modern man.
But, it is destroying your body.
Compound all of the things mentioned above, then add the dynamic nature and freak accidents that do happen, plus the fact that we are trying to submit each other, and you’re always just one move away from pain and dysfunction.
If you want to stay in the game to black belt and beyond, then you’d better start undoing the negative effect this martial art will have on your life.
